DESCRIPTION :

Awareness is growing that flood risk management calls for collaborative action involving stakeholders across governmental levels and local communities. OA is conceived as an approach which fosters and guide such collaboration and expands the options for intervention. This study indicates that OA is recognized by the stakeholders involved as an innovative approach to be used in urban planning, designed to help them to share a common vision on what/when/where to adapt in the future, taking also into account uncertain conditions like, e.g., climate change. For example, it provides members of the community (financial and social) incentives to take action by themselves in a manner which is aligned with the local and/or national FRM policy. For the local government (e.g., the district office), OA legitimates to engage with the local community in order to make flood adaptation measures more effective, by having the local community properly involved. Finally, it provides more options for intervening with flood adaptation measures, rather than controlling and commanding the people to follow a strategy decided through top-down governance. This approach creates a shared space for stakeholders, which can be used to organize cooperation between them by allowing them to work on a common solution to the underlying problem.